Minggu, 10 April 2011

Women in Islam

By Agus Subandi
Burqa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A burqa (Arabic pronunciation: [ˈbʊrqɑʕ]; also transliterated burkha, burka or burqua from Arabic: برقع‎ burqu' orburqa' ) is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering (Arabic: jilbāb), plus the head-covering (Arabic: ḥijāb, taking the most usual meaning), plus the face-veil (Arabic: niqāb).
Etymology
A speculative and unattested etymology connects b-r-q-ʕ with the Arabic root /r-q-ʕ/, which means "to patch up" or "to sew up". The objection to this etymology is that it assumes a pattern b-f-ʕ-l that adds b- to a root f-ʕ-l. The face-veil portion is usually a rectangular piece of semi-transparent cloth whose top side is sewn to corresponding portion of the head-scarf, so that the veil hangs down loose from the scarf, and it can be turned up if the woman wishes to reveal her face (otherwise the whole face would be covered). In other cases, the niqāb part can be a side-attached cloth that covers the face below the eyes' region.
The face-veil portion is also called purdah ([pərd̪aː]), a Persian word meaning "curtain".
History
The Arabic word 'برقع' refers to a face cover with eye openings. It does not mean the whole black dress called the abaya.
Further information: Sex segregation and Islam


An 1842 Lithography work by James Rattray showing a Persian(Qizilbash) woman in Afghanistanwith a burqa next to her.
There is evidence that this type of dress was worn by some Arab and Persian women long before Islam. For example, the Roman African Christian Tertullian, writing in Chapter 17 of The Veiling of Virgins around 200 AD, praises the modesty of those "pagan women of Arabia" who "not only cover their head, but their whole face...preferring to enjoy half the light with one eye rather than prostituting their whole face."[1] Strabo, writing in the first century AD, also refers to covering the face as a practice of some Persian women (Geography 11.13. 9–10).
Many Muslims believe that the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an, and the collected traditions of the life of Muhammed, or hadith, require both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public. However, this requirement, called hijab, has been interpreted in many different ways by Islamic scholars (ulema) and Muslim communities (see Women and Islam).
The Quran has been translated as stating:
"O Prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the faithful to draw their outergarments (jilbabs) close around themselves; that is better that they will be recognized and not annoyed. And God is ever Forgiving, Gentle."
Qur'an Surah/Chapter Al-Ahzab Ayah/Verse 59
Another verse in the Quran is translated as:
"And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes, and to guard their private parts, and not to display their beauty except what is apparent of it, and to extend their headcoverings (khimars) to cover their bosoms (jaybs), and not to display their beauty except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk, or what their right hands rule (slaves), or the followers from the men who do not feel sexual desire, or the small children to whom the nakedness of women is not apparent, and not to strike their feet (on the ground) so as to make known what they hide of their adornments. And turn in repentance to Allah together, O you the faithful, in order that you are successful"
Qur'an Sura Nur Chapter: The Light. Verse 31
A fatwa, written by Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid on the Saudi Arabian website Islam QA, states:
The correct view as indicated by the evidence is that the woman's face is 'awrah which must be covered. It is the most tempting part of her body, because what people look at most is the face, so the face is the greatest 'awrah of a woman.[2]
The fatwa also states when it is prohibited to wear the veil:
In the Sunnah there are many ahaadeeth, such as: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "The woman in ihraam is forbidden to veil her face (wear niqaab) or to wear the burqa'." This indicates that when women were not in ihraam, women used to cover their faces[2]
Namus
Main article: Namus
In the Muslim world, preventing women from being seen by men is closely linked to the concept of Namus.[3][4]
Namus is an ethical category, a virtue, in Middle Eastern Muslim patriarchal character. It is a strongly gender-specific category of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention, respect/respectability, and modesty. The term is often translated as "honor".[3][4]
Burqas around the world
Central and Southern Asia
Afghanistan


Two women wearing shuttlecock burqas.
The full Afghan chadri covers the wearer's entire face except for a small region about the eyes, which is covered by a concealing net or grille.[5]
Before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the chadri was infrequently worn in cities. While they were in power, the Taliban treatment of women required the wearing of a chadri in public. Officially, it is not required under the present Afghan regime, but local warlords still enforce it in southern Afghanistan. Burqa use in the remainder of Afghanistan is variable and is observed to be gradually declining in Kabul. Due to political instability in these areas, women who might not otherwise be inclined to wear the chadri must do so as a matter of personal safety.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, the use of the burqa has greatly declined over time. The cities of Rawalpindi, Sargodha,Multan, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Quetta were overwhelmingly seen as cities of burqa-clad women at thetime of Independence (1947). However, burqa use, to some extent, persists in rural areas of the Northwest Frontier Province and some adjoining areas of Punjab and Balochistan. Smaller cities like Mianwali in Punjab which have a majority Pashtun population have burqa-observances as part of orthodox traditions. These traditions are independent of religion, and women from minorities such as Christian and Hindu women also observe them. However, the burqa observances remain localized and most women who observe burqa within these areas, do not do so when and if they travel out of the area. There the burqa is a symbol of wealth and honor[citation needed] as well as a tradition instead of a religious symbol. The burqas worn are either the chadri version, or a local cloak-like garment with a veil stitched on top. Traditionally, women from the rural areas did not wear burqas, since they were prohibited from working in the fields or outside with men.
Middle East
Israel
According to The Jerusalem Post, a Member of the Knesset is intending to put forward a bill to "prohibit the wearing of a full-body and face covering for women. [The] bill would not differentiate between Muslims and Jews.[6]" Elsewhere, Miriam Shaviv writes that "at least 100" Jewish women have taken to wearing the veil. This followed its adoption by Bruria Keren, who was "considered a holy woman" by these women. Shaviv, who considers Keren to be "mentally ill", continues:
Nobody forced them; however, she clearly convinced these gullible and needy women that the ideal for a woman was not to be seen in public (and not even to be heard - she used to stop talking for days on end). Negating themselves, she was telling them, making themselves invisible, was the height of frumkeit, while in fact it has no basis whatsoever in halachah.[7]
Furthermore, a Telegraph correspondent writes that this trend has drawn some criticism from rabbis who wish to declare the burqa an item of sexual deviancy and ban Jewish women from wearing them.[8]
Syria


Woman in a burqa in Aleppo,Syria.
The burqa is not allowed to be worn in Syrian schools and universities by either students, teachers or staff.[9]
Europe


A woman in a burqa inEngland.
Face-covering clothing has become a political issue in Western Europe, and some intellectuals and political groups advocate prohibition, for various reasons.
United Kingdom
Main article: United Kingdom debate over veils
This outfit is causing debate in the United Kingdom. A senior member of the previous government, Jack Straw, asked Muslim women from his constituency to remove any veils covering their faces during face-to-face meetings with him. He explained to the media that this was a request, not a demand, and that he made sure that a woman staffer remained in the room during the meeting. A media furor followed. Some Muslim groups said that they understood his concerns, but others rejected them as prejudicial.[10] A poll in 2010 indicated that 67 percent of British people supported banning the burqa in all public places.[11] However, a ban on burqas has been ruled out by the current Conservative-Liberal government and previous Labour government,[12] but the UK Independence Party[13] suggested it.
France
Main article: Islamic scarf controversy in France
Wearing the burqa has not been allowed in French public schools since 2004 when it was judged to be a religious symbol like the Christian cross. This ruling was the application of an established 1905 law that prohibits students and staff from wearing any clearly visible religious symbols. The law relates to the time where the secular French state took over control of most schools from the Catholic Church. It does not apply to private or religious schools. This was followed on 22 June 2009, when the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that burqas are "not welcome" in France, commenting that "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity".[14] The French National Assembly appointed 32 lawmakers from right- and left-wing parties to a six-month fact-finding mission to look at ways of restricting its use.[15] On 26 January 2010, the commission reported that access to public services and public transport should be barred to those wearing the burqa. On Tuesday July 13, 2010 the Assembly overwhelmingly approved a bill banning burqas and niqabs.[16]
On 14 September 2010, the French Senate overwhelmingly approved a ban on burqas in public. The law will be effective beginning in spring 2011. When the measure was sent in May to the parliament they said "Given the damage it produces on those rules which allow the life in community, ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice, even if it is voluntary, cannot be tolerated in any public place".[17][18]
The ban is officially called, 'the bill to forbid concealing one's face in public.' It
refers neither to Islam nor to veils. Officials insist the law against face-covering is not discriminatory because it would apply to everyone, not just Muslims. Yet they cite a host of exceptions, including motorcycle helmets, or masks for health reasons, fencing, skiing or carnivals.[19]
Elsewhere in Europe
On 29 April 2010, the lower house of parliament in Belgium passed a bill banning any clothing that would obscure the identity of the wearer in places like parks and in the street. The proposal was passed nem con and now goes to the Senate. BBC News estimates that "Only around 30 women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of around half a million."[20]
In Italy, by an anti-terrorism Law passed in 1975, it is forbidden to wear any dress that hides the face of a person. In May 2010, it was reported that a Tunisian woman was fined €500 for this offence.[21]
Oceania
Australia
In 2010, Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi called for the burqa to be banned in his country, branding it "un-Australian". The ban did not go ahead but debate about the burqa continues.[22][23]
Health effects
Enveloping outer garments, such as the burqa, are believed to cause or worsen medical conditions in some individuals.[24] In particular, they contribute to a predisposition for hypovitaminosis D, which can lead to rickets or osteoporosis and may increase the risk of seizures in infants born to affected mothers.[25][26][27][28]


Close-up of part of the traditional Bandari burqa costume of southern Iran.
References
1. ^ Tertullian's Latin reads: "Iudicabunt nos Arabiae ethnicae feminae ethnicae quae non caput, sed faciem quoque ita totam tegunt, ut oculo liberato contentae sint dimidiam frui lucem quam totam faciem prostituere."
2. ^ a b Al-Munajjid, Sheikh Muhammed Salih. "Do women have to wear niqaab?". Islam QA. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
3. ^ a b Werner Schiffauer, "Die Gewalt der Ehre. Erklärungen zu einem deutsch-türkischen Sexualkonflikt." ("The Force of the Honour"), Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 1983. ISBN 3-518-37394-3.
4. ^ a b Dilek Cindoglu, "Virginity tests and artificial virginity in modern Turkish medicine", pp. 215–228, in Women and sexuality in Muslim societies, P. Ýlkkaracan (Ed.), Women for Women's Human Rights, Istanbul, 2000.
5. ^ Malhotra, Jyothi (July 26, 2009). "An election in Afghanistan".Business Standard. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
6. ^ The Jerusalem Post. 26 April 2010. [1]. Retrieved 16 Feb 2011.
7. ^ Shaviv, Miriam (28 April 2010). "Should Israel Ban the Burka?".The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
8. ^ Blomfield, Adrian (July 30, 2010). "Israeli rabbis clamp down on burka". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved August 23, 2010.
9. ^ The Associated Press (20 July 2010). "Burqa ban arrives in Syrian state universities". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
10. ^ "'Remove full veils' urges Straw". BBC News. October 6, 2006. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
11. ^ "67% of Britons want burqa ban". The Times of India. July 18, 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
12. ^ MacLellan, Kylie (July 17, 2010). "Britain should not seek burqa ban: government". Reuters.
13. ^ Allen, Peter (September 15, 2010). "France's Senate backs National Assembly and bans women from wearing the burka in public". Daily Mail (London).
14. ^ Foreign, Our (June 22, 2009). "Nicolas Sarkozy: burqa not welcome in France". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved August 23, 2010.
15. ^ "France sets up burka commission". BBC News. June 23, 2009. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
16. ^ Doland, Angela (July 13, 2010). "France Burqa Ban: French Parliament Approves Ban on Face Veils". The Huffington Post. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
17. ^ French Senate Approves Burqa Ban (CNN)
18. ^ CNN - French Senate approves burqa ban
19. ^ Doland, Angela (July 13, 2010). "France Burqa Ban: French Parliament Approves Ban on Face Veils". The Huffington Post. Retrieved Feb 10 2011.
20. ^ "Belgian lawmakers pass burka ban". BBC News. April 30, 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
21. ^ The Telegraph, 4 May 2010. Muslim woman fined £430 for wearing burka in Italyhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7676367/Muslim-woman-fined-430-for-wearing-burka-in-Italy.html. Accessed 16 Feb 2011.
22. ^ Thinly veiled discrimination? Australian Times. October, 2010.http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/community/Burqa-bans--thinly-veiled-discrimination
23. ^ http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/burqua-ruling-must-be-made-by-sa-speaker-lyn-breuer/story-e6frea6u-1225944811804
24. ^ Dubitsky, Stephanie. "The Health Care Crisis Facing Women Under Taliban Rule in Afghanistan". Washington College of Law.American University. Retrieved 2010-09-15. "Furthermore, the mandatory act of wearing burqas itself causes health risks. They are so heavy and enveloping that they restrict women's activities by making it difficult for them to move. The simple act of walking outside becomes hazardous because the mesh opening severely restricts women's field of vision and they are unable to see their path clearly. In addition, burqas are linked to hearing loss, skin problems, headaches, cardiac disorder, asthma, and also can contribute to mental health problems."
25. ^ Stuijt, Adriana (2009-05-08). "Women could endanger their health by wearing burqas". Digital Journal. Retrieved 2010-09-15. ""In Ireland, which is experiencing a large influx of muslim immigrants at the moment, women wearing the burqa, doctors are warning, 'are at increased risk of pelvic fractures during childbirth because of vitamin D deficiency due to a lack of sunlight. "And babies born to women with vitamin D deficiency are also more prone to seizures in their first week of life," according to Dr Miriam Casey, expert in Medicine for the Elderly at the Osteoporosis Unit in St James's hospital in Dublin. The burqa - an all-enveloping outer garment, does not allow enough sunlight through to give women sufficient vitamin D, she warns."
26. ^ Douglas, David (2007-06-25). "Middle Eastern women may have vitamin D deficiency". Reuters. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
27. ^ Bandgar, TR; NS Shah. "Vitamin D and Hip Fractures: Indian Scenario". Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 58(September 2010). Retrieved 2010-09-15. "Social and religious customs that require people to wear concealing clothing, veiling and traditional attire, such as the Burqa", salvar kameez" and sari significantly prevents sun exposure.".
28. ^ Keim, Brandon (2007-06-26). "Could Dressing Conservatively Make Muslim Women Sick?". Wired. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
External links
 Burqa ban: What it means for the West – TCN News

Purdah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Purdah (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(March 2008)



Ladies of Caubul (1848 lithograph) showing the lifting of purdah in zenana areas.
Purdah or Pardaa (from Persian: پرده, meaning "curtain") is the practice of concealing women from men. According to one definition:
Purdah is a curtain which makes sharp separation between the world of man and that of a woman, between the community as a whole and the family which is its heart, between the street and the home, the public and the private, just as it sharply separates society and the individual.[1]
This takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes, and the requirement for women to cover their bodies and conceal their form.
Purdah exists in various forms in the Islamic world[2] and among Hindu women in parts of India.[3]
In the Muslim world, preventing women from being seen by men is closely linked to the concept ofNamus.[4][5] Namus is an ethical category, a virtue, in Middle Eastern Muslim patriarchal character. It is a strongly gender-specific category of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention,respect/respectability, and modesty. The term is often translated as "honor".[4][5]
Means
A woman's withdrawal into purdah restricts her personal, social and economic activities outside her home. In other words, a woman in purdah should always remain at home. It is permissible, however, for a woman in purdah to come out of her house in extreme necessity, but that is subject to certain conditions, as follows.
 She should be accompanied by a close male relative (mahram) if the distance to her destination is that more than three days & three nights. This is the distance covered by walking or on an animal with usual breaks for resting and eating. The 'Ulama have explained this to be about 48 miles.
 She should be covered so that men cannot see her. The usual purdah garment worn is a burqa or a niqab, a veil to conceal the face. The eyes may or may not be exposed.
 She should not mix with men who are not related to her unless she needs to.
Physical segregation within a house can be done with walls, curtains, and screens which separate the Zenana (women's chamber) from theMardana (men's chamber).
History and context
Persia
Muslim scholar Fadwa El Guindi observes that the Achaemenid rulers of Persia were reported by the Graeco-Roman historian Plutarch to have hidden their wives and concubines from the public gaze.
The barbarous nations, and amongst them the Persians especially, are extremely jealous, severe, and suspicious about their women, not only their wives (hai gamētai), but also their bought slaves and concubines (pallakai), whom they keep so strictly that no one sees them abroad; they spend their lives shut up within doors (oikoi) and when they take a journey, are carried in closed tents, curtained on all sides, and set upon a wagon (harmamaxai).[6]
The wives were hidden in wagons and litters, that is, by purdah. It is likely that the custom of veiling continued through the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid periods. This tradition of Purdah is reflected in the Shahnama, the Persian chronicle in which women are generally referred to as pushide-ruyan (پوشيده رویان) "those whose faces are covered" or pardegian (پردگيان) "those behind the curtains".
Purdah was rigorously observed in Iran before Reza Shah's purdah ban. The practice was also observed under the Taliban in Afghanistan, where women had to observe complete purdah at all times when they were in public. Only close male family members and other women were allowed to see them out of purdah. In other societies, purdah is often only practised during certain times of religious significance.
Greece and Byzantium
Upper-class Greek and Byzantine women were also secluded from the public gaze.[citation needed]
Arab and Islamic world
Muslim women were to be veiled (hijab) or secluded because it marked them as respectable (see Sex segregation and Islam).
In historically Islamic Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, purdah is a custom with cultural rather than religious basis. Even in the United Arab Emirates, where women can wear skirts and similar modest garments, Arab women often observe purdah. It is important to differentiate between purdah and hijab. Hijab is an Islamic moral tradition, while purdah does not necessarily conform to Islamic teachings.
Criticism
Criticism of purdah has occurred historically. Purdah was criticised from within its community, for example in the 1905 story entitled The Sultana's Dream, by Bengali feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain. In 1925 Marmaduke Pickthall, a British convert to Islam and translator of the Qur'an, gave a lecture in Madras titled "The Relation of the Sexes"[7] which condemned purdah in the Indian subcontinent, and also criticized the practice of face veiling among Muslim women.
Bhimrao Ambedkar, a social reformer and the chief architect of the Constitution of India, imputed many evils existing among the Muslims of colonial-era India to the system of purdah in his 1946 book Pakistan, or The Partition of India, saying that women lack "mental nourishment" by being isolated and that purdah harms the sexual morals of society as a whole.[8]
Pratibha Patil, who later became President of India once said that the purdah system was introduced among Hindu women to protect them from the Muslim invaders.[9]
References


Silver zenana carriage for women during Muslim majority period in India
1. ^ Understanding Islam, by Frithjof Schuon. ISBN 0-14-003413-7. Page 18
2. ^ World faiths, Teach yourself - Islam. By Ruqaiyyah Maqsood. ISBN 0-340-60901-X. Page 154.
3. ^ Social Institutions in India Gender, Institutions and Development Database
4. ^ a b Werner Schiffauer, "Die Gewalt der Ehre. Erklärungen zu einem deutsch-türkischen Sexualkonflikt." ("The Force of the Honour"), Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 1983. ISBN 3-518-37394-3.
5. ^ a b Dilek Cindoglu, "Virginity tests and artificial virginity in modern Turkish medicine," pp. 215–228, in Women and sexuality in Muslim societies, P. Ýlkkaracan (Ed.), Women for Women’s Human Rights, Istanbul, 2000.
6. ^ cited in Briant 2002 p. 284
7. ^ Pickthall, M. 1925, The Relation of the Sexes
8. ^ Ambedkar, B.R. 1946. Pakistan, or the Partition of India, 3rd edition, Thacker and Co. Bombay. Chapter 10.
9. ^ Patil’s purdah remark courts controversy Tuesday , Jun 19, 2007 at 0000 hrs
External links
 King's College Women's history
 Description of purdah practices in 20th century India by C.M. Naim, Professor Emeritus of Urdu and South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago
 Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Purdah". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Tudong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tudong is a Sumatran word which is commonly translated/referred to as a veil or headscarf in English.
In Malaysia the tudong is worn in accordance to Islam's hijab. Usually, the tudong covers the hair while leaving the face exposed. It is part of the standard dress code for office work, school uniforms and formal occasions.
In Indonesia a tudung is a form of hijab that has a sewn-in curved visor. Rather, in Indonesia the word more analagous to the Malaysian word "tudong" is "kerudung."
Tudong is also a word used in Thailand for when Buddhist monks undertake forest wandering and solitude, following the 13 rules of Tundong given by the Buddha. Although the Buddha's definition of Tudong (alternatively known as Tudangkha) has little to do with wandering, the Thais have adapted the phrase to refer to the act of constantly travelling from place to place and staying in the wilderness.
Niqāb in Egypt
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In a predominantly Muslim society, as many as 90% of women in Egypt have adopted a form of veiling.[1] A majority of Egyptian women cover at least their hair with the hijab. A hijab refers to a head covering that is worn by Muslim women. Although the phenomenon of wearing the niqāb, a veil which covers the face is not as common, the niqab in Egypt has become more prevalent. While many women in Egypt wear a black niqab along with a billowing black abaya as seen in countries such as Saudi Arabia, many choose to wear different colors of the niqab or manipulate the hijab to cover their face. Regardless, the growing trend of munaqqabat, or women who wear the niqab, has alarmed the authorities. They have begun to see this dress as a security threat, because it hides the face, and because it is perceived as a political statement, a rejection of the state in favor of a strict Islamic system.[1]
Controversies over the niqāb appear to have emerged in Egypt's recent history. Particularly, a highly emotional response from Egyptian society occurred on October 8, 2009, when Egypt's top Islamic school and the world's leading school of Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University, banned the wearing of the niqāb in all-female classrooms and dormitories of all its affiliate schools and educational institutes. However, the niqāb has had a long and contentious history in Egyptian society. The meaning of the niqāb worn by upper class Egyptian women at the turn of the century is different from what is worn by women today.
The niqāb during the early 20th century
In the early 20th century, the niqāb was not a practice confined to Muslims, but was worn by both Muslim and Christian elite women. This urban phenomenon originated in Istanbul and was part of the harem tradition, in which concubines and freeborn women of the Ottoman-Egyptian elite were secluded in harems that were guarded by eunuchs.[2] During this time wearing a face veil was described as “a national Egyptian dress for upper-class women, and it was called al-habara.[3] It consisted of a full-length skirt, a head cover, and al-burqu’, which was the face-cover from below the eyes down to the chest.


This is a portrait of an upper-class woman in "An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians" written by British orientalist Edward William Lane in 1833
Although these hareem women are the most visible class of women in chronicles of nineteenth century Egypt, they actually constituted no more than 2 percent of Egypt's five million female population in the late eighteenth century.[4] Although they were numerically insignificant, the elite women's secluded lifestyle was considered the ideal and was envied by lower classes of women.[4] Seclusion and veiling was a luxury that poorer families could not afford; so, Cairo’s lower class women could not cover their faces with the burqu.[5] Having to attend to their work in the villages and the city, it was impossible to inhibit their movement with seclusion or cover their faces like the elite women.[6]
Discourses on the veil during the nationalist movement
The debate about the position of Egyptian women and veil erupted at the turn of the 20th century. In the midst of the Egyptian nationalism movement, the status of Egyptian women was examined by foreigners and Egyptians alike to argue whether Egypt was sufficiently advanced to rule itself without British occupation. Western-educated Egyptians and other leading figures of Egypt's national movement consequently were forced to reexamine the practices of veiling, seclusion of women, arranged marriages, polygamy, and divorce.[7]
Male nationalists' stance on the burqu'
For elite male nationalists as for the colonizers, the veil and segregation symbolized the backwardness and inferiority of Islamic society. Qasim Amin (1863–1908), a Western-educated Egyptian lawyer and jurist, was one of the founders of the Egyptian nationalist movement and was one of the main figures in the turn-of-the-century debate on women and society. Dubbed as the "Liberator of Egyptian women", he caused intense debate when his book The Liberation of Women (Tahrir Al Mar’a) was published in 1899. This book is widely considered the beginning of the battle of the veil that agitated the Arab press.[8]


Qasim Amin, the "father of Arab feminism"
In his book, Amin argued for Muslim society to abandon its inherent backwardness and follow the Western path to success. Changing customs regarding women were key to bringing about the desired cultural transformation in Egyptian society.[9] In particular, the veil was considered “ a huge barrier between women and her elevation, and consequently a barrier between the nation and its advancement”.[10] He describes the women in the harem as having “no role in public life, no role in religious life, no feelings of patriotism, and no feelings”. Arguing that "as the socioeconomic status of women rises, their ignorance increases" Amin glorified the peasant woman who led an economically active and unveiled life in comparison to the secluded upper-class woman.[11]For, "although ignorant, the peasant woman has accumulated such a wealth of knowledge through their work and business dealings that if educated would undoubtedly surpass her hareem sister in every respect"[12]
Upper-class women's discussion on the burqu'
As early as the 1870s and 1880s, before organized feminism in Egypt developed, Egyptian women also were publishing their writings and were engaged in public speaking. Unlike its position in men’s “feminist” discourse, the veil was not central to women’s organized feminism at that time.[13]
Reacting to the writings of European-influenced Egyptian men who advocated the lifting of the veil for women, Malak Hifni Nasif (1886–1918), an Egyptian Muslim feminist saw a nuanced “male domination being enacted in and through the then contemporary discourse of the veil” and opposed mandatory unveiling [14] Hoda Shaarawi (1879–1947), a pioneer Egyptian feminist and nationalist, who was married to Ali Shaarawi, a leading political activist, is described in her memoirs as one of the last upper-class Egyptian women to live in the segregated life of the harem.[15] She would be one of the women who would finally bring about the end of this structure. Even though Hoda Shaarawi went to the emerging women's literary salons where Western and Egyptian elite women held debates about practices such as veiling, she opted to remain in a separate segregated room at these receptions and refused to attend mixed parties.[14] [15] At these salons, Western women attacked the niqab when "Egyptian women could camouflage disreputable deeds behind a mask but, because the actions of European women were visible, their behavior was better".[14]
[15]


Hoda Shaarawi in a hijab
Thus, when she declared the beginning of an organized feminist struggle called the Egyptian Feminist Union, Shaarawi noted that Egyptian women were calling for restoring their lost rights and reclaiming their national heritage, and not imitating the West.[13] In her speech at the feminist meeting in Rome, Shaarawi specified the face-veil (burqu') and not the hijab as a barrier to women's advancement.[13] She unveiled ceremonially in a public political feminist act in May 1923 upon returning from the International Women Suffrage Alliance Congress in Rome- an act of far-reaching significance.[13] According to Margot Badran, the editor and translator of Hoda Shaarawi’s memoir, Harem Years, this act signaled the end of the harem system in Egypt and the start of the elite women entering the public sphere.[16] This would start a movement among upper-class women to abandon the burqu' and move around the city without the cover. Not only would women like Shaarawi remove themselves from the seclusion of their harem worlds, but fully joined their nationalist husbands in the male-led Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against British occupation.


Upper-class women, both Muslim and Coptic Christian, left the harems and joined the Egyptian nationalist movement wearing the niqab
In 1925, the EFU founded a French-language magazine L'Egyptienne, which discussed unveiling in the Middle East. Eventually, face covering waned in Egypt, and by the late 1930s it was gone.[13] Instead, middle and upper-class women wore versions of Western dress both on the streets and at home. It was not until the Islamic revival of the 1970s and an introduction of more modest dress that the hijab and less commonly, the niqab, reasserted themselves.[13]
The niqāb and the rise of the Islamist Movement in Egypt
The relationship between the Egyptian government, the strengthening Islamist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Azhar—regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and Sharia—affected the reaction to the conservative symbol of the niqāb. Gamal Abdel Nasser, (1918–1970) was the Second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. Through Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Nasser gave secularism a new lease on life when the old regime's version was foundering.[17] After the attempted assassination of Nasser, in 1954 by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Nasser abolished the Brotherhood, imprisoned and punished thousands of its member. The Brotherhood was dissolved and most of its leaders fled to other Arab countries.[17] In 1961, Nasser made traditional religious institutions, such as the division of Religious Endowments and the Islamic University of al-Azhar parts of the state bureaucracy. Since then, the Egyptian government has established a variety of governing bodies to oversee mosque activities, bringing them under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.[18] Many attribute the rise of the Islamist movement in Egypt after many Egyptians became disenchanted by Gamal Abdel Nasser's secular regime and its failed Arab nationalist movement.[19]
In response to Egypt's catastrophic loss to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and the seeming failure of secularism, there also was a push to return to Egypt's Islamic identity. This Islamist movement especially resonated with the younger generation, university graduates and young professionals, who began to dress differently in public from the majority of urban rising middle and even upper-class Egyptians, who since the 1930s had worn Western clothing.[19]
The Rise of Islamist Movement in Universities
After Nasser's death in 1970, Anwar Sadat (1918–1981) established his political legitimacy by countering the left.[20] He strategically attempted to make peace with the Islamists , gradually releasing imprisoned members of the Muslim Brotherhood and did not obstruct the Islamist's takeover of university student unions.[17]Especially after the disillusionment brought by the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Islamists steadily increased their influences and popularity in universities such as Cairo University. For uprooted students from the provinces with dim job prospects, the Islamist groups on campus offered a sense of community, ran study sessions, clubs dedicated to religious activities to counter the recreational and social clubs, and practical help with common problems.[17] They also offered women protection from male harassment in the packed buses and lecture halls by arranging mini-van services and separate seating in class.[17] Those who joined the religious movement were called mitdayyinin (pl. form), which was used to refer to women and men who adopted a new appearance different from the norm of most urban Egyptians and behaved conservatively in public.[17] They reached this state of religiousness or by iqtina' (conviction) and were in general not coerced to join.[17] While jellabiyasand long beards were symbols of assertive male Islamists on campus, women's dress was the most obvious and charged symbol of the Islamist movement.[21] In the mid-seventies, the rising Islamist phenomenon was visible in Egyptian streets and universities through women's dress.[19]
The Contemporary Veiling Movement
A contemporary veiling movement was apparent when women whose mothers did not cover started wearing various forms of a veil: whether a hijab, al-khimar, which is a head covering that covers the hair and falls down over the chest and back. And some added the niqāb, and to the most extreme would wear gloves and opaque socks to cover the hands and feet.[22]
Many scholars attribute the rise of women's Islamic dress to the accessibility of higher education for women from lower middle class who were new to Cairo and felt uncomfortable with Western fashions.[21] However, complaints by sophisticated mothers about their daughters who wore Islamic garb depicts that this movement was not limited to the lower middle class.[21] Other reasons for explaining why women began to wear Islamic dress are overlapping and contradictory including: for convenience, to depict one's piety and purity, to affirm indigenous values and reject Western values, to submit to-or rebel against-parental will, to avoid male harassment, and to save money.[21] Unlike the elite women in the beginning of the 20th century who were veiled and prevented from public participation in society, these women continued to be active and visible in mainstream society, competitively enrolled in higher education, and majored in “nonsoft” professional fields.[23]Regardless of their varied motivations for adopting Islamic clothing, what women wore became more of a political statement. By the 1980s, as the religious movement became more of an oppositional political force, the word mitdayyinin was replaced by Islamiyyin, or Islamist.[21] Al-Azhar, which was the Islamic seat of learning and scholarship in Cairo, was not prepared for a movement of such magnitude to emerge from below.[24] As much as the State wished it, al-Azhar could not condemn this movement [24]
The ban of the Muslim Brotherhood and the niqab on universities
Even though Sadat pledged to conform to Sharia and encouraged the People's Assembly to draw up civil, penal, commercial, and procedural law codes based on Sharia, he quickly lost Islamists' trust after signing the peace agreement in 1979.[25] The Islamists were also inflamed by a new law, sponsored by the president's wife, Jihan Sadat, that granted women the right to divorce in 1979.


Jihan Sadat, the former first lady of Egypt sparked debate after attempting to reform family law in Egypt.
In what would prove to be his final speech, Sadat ridiculed the Islamic garb worn by pious women, which he called a “tent”.[20] In a response to a series of demonstrations orchestrated by the Islamists, Sadat banned Islamist student organizations and prohibited women from wearing the niqab on Egypt’s university campuses.[20] There were rumors of veiled women (and even men) taking examinations in others' places, but it was the symbol of the niqab and its political statement that seemed to disturb the regime.[21] After Sadat's assassination by Islamists in 1981,President Mubarak executed Sadat's assassins and kept in force the 1979 restrictions on student activities and imposed a state of emergency in September 1981.[21] After incidents of Islamist terrorism in Egypt, the Egyptian state underHosni Mubarak increasingly instituted reforms to regulate Islamic practices and ensure that they take a state-endorsed form.[26] However, the sky-high inflation that resulted in Egypt after President Anwar Sadat opened the door to foreign investment and a more conservative Gulf form of Islam when many Egyptians migrated to oil-rich Arab states in search of employment.[26] Thus, the rise in the niqāb in Egyptian society may depict the conservatism picked up by Egyptian expatriates who move to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations. In 1987, the niqab became the center of debate at Cairo University. In March 1987, 5000 students demonstrated for three days and abused the dean of the Faculty of Medicine for barring a face-veiled student from campus.[27] The mufti of Egypt ruled that the campus ban on theniqab did not contravene the Sharia, but in March 1988 the Council of State's Administrative Court overturned the ban.[28] The niqāb, commonly associated as a sign of Salafism and Muslim Brotherhood sympathies, still remains the center of debates on the Islamization of society.While there are no official figures on how many women wear the niqāb in Egypt today, the practice has become increasingly widespread in recent years.


Many Egyptian women who were living in Saudi Arabia return to Egypt having adopted the niqab
Controversial incidents around the niqāb
Over the past two decades in which the niqāb has begun to be seen in Egypt's streets, the debate about whether the niqāb is appropriate has resulted in high emotional responses from society and a media storm surrounding it. These effects depict how the niqāb debate is not an isolated issue or an isolated struggle between those who wear the niqāb and the government. The debate around the niqab reflects the greater war against the threat of violent extremism which has led to a broad government crackdown and massive arrests, not only of suspected extremists but moderate Islamists. Finding schools and universities as primary sources of Islamic militancy, the government has designated education as an issue of "national security" and has initiated policies around the niqab to counter the threat of fundamentalism.[29]
School uniforms debate
In 1994, the Minister revised legislation on the Unification of School Uniform, which forbids girls in primary school from covering their hair, but allows girls 12 and older who had parental permission to cover their heads. The order also prohibited the niqāb at all levels [30] Education Minister Alaa Baha Eddin asserted that the educational system was slipping out of the hands of the governments and falling into the hands of extremists.[30]
The minister's ban on the niqāb has been interpreted by many Islamists as an indication of his hostility to Islamic fundamentalism. Baha Eddin has been outspoken in his opposition to Islamism, at conferences and in statements published by the media.[31] After the Education Minister encountered criticism from differing ideological camps for interfering in the practices of individuals and schools, he rallied the support of strategic religious figures, including al-Azhar. The Grand Mufti and Shaykh of al-Azhar, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, issued a fatwa stating that the niqāb is not a requirement in Islam.[30]
Despite the Azhar’s support, the uniform legislation triggered enormous debate and resulted in a spate of lawsuits. Parents argued that wearing the hijab or niqāb is a religious freedom for the children to wear what they want to wear. The court rejected a lawsuit filed against the minister by the father of a schoolgirl who was suspended for refusing to remove the niqāb. Dozens of schoolgirls were suspended since the ban was issued, but in most cases the courts have overruled the schools' decision.[30] The well-known Islamist lawyer, Montasser el-Zayat, tried and won over twenty-five niqāb-related cases in the lower courts.[30]
Finally in a 1996 appeal that reached the Supreme Constitutional Court- Egypt’s highest court- Ministerial Order 113 of 1994 was ruled unconstitutional. However, the debate on the appropriateness of the niqāb continued to universities.[30]
American University of Cairo
In 2000, a controversy around the niqāb erupted in the private American University of Cairo (AUC) when a sophomore student wished to be fully face-veiled—at the time unprecedented at the institution. In 2001, AUC formally declared a ban on the niqāb. It supported its stance by quoting a 1994 regulation laid down by the Ministry of Education deeming the niqāb inappropriate in academic institutions. AUC was a private institution and it prided itself on a liberal arts education, which the niqāb does not represent.[31] Another reason provided by the Minister was on the basis of security reasons since the identity of the student is hidden. Later in the same year, Heba el-Zeini an English graduate student from Al-Azhar University was denied entrance to the AUC library with her on due to the problem of identification that the niqāb can pose. Her lawyer, El-Zayyat argued against this when he suggested that a female officer could inspect the woman's identity.[32] The lower court ruled in favor of el-Zeini and obliged the university to allow students wearing a face veil on campus.[33] The university refused to execute the decision and appealed the verdict. The case was transferred to the Circuit of Unification of Principles, an 11-judge committee of the Supreme Court, for a decision. In 2007, the court ruled that the American University in Cairo was wrong to bar a woman who wears the niqāb from using its facilities. The court cited personal and religious freedom as grounds for its ruling.[33]
Al-Azhar controversy
On October 3, 2009, on a tour of an Al-Azhar girls’ school, Al-Azhar's Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, also referred to as Tantawi, ordered a 11-year-old pupil to remove the niqāb, saying that "the niqāb is only a custom and has no connection to Islam".[34] Four days later, Al-Azhar Supreme Council, which Tantawi headed, passed a resolution banning the wearing of the niqāb in all-girl Al-Azhar classrooms and dorms. This ban applied to all levels: elementary schools, high schools, and colleges.[35]


In October 2009, a controversy surrounding the niqab occurred in the Al Azhar Mosque and University
Sheikh Tantawi clarified that a woman wears the niqāb so that no man may see her face – and that it was completely illogical for her to wear it where only women were present. He stressed that for this decision, he had relied on a majority clerical opinion that a woman's face is not shameful.[35] The council asserted that it was not against the practice, but did not consider the niqāb an Islamic obligation.
The Minister for Higher Education, Hani Hilal announced later that the niqāb would also not be allowed in women's dormitories in public universities for security reasons. The decision, the minister said, followed fifteen incidents in which men had been caught attempting to enter dormitories disguised as women.[36] Hilal said that female students were allowed to wear the niqāb on campus.[36] However, the students had to take off the niqāb upon entering the dorms, so as to protect the girls from men that might enter the area disguised as women. In December 2009, the President of Ain Sham University expelled students wearing the niqāb from the university's hostel.[37] The Court of Administrative Justice issued upheld the right of students wearing the face veil to reside in the girls' dormitories of public universities and suspended the decision, stating that the expulsion was a breach of personal liberty and violated the right to education, including the right to equal access to university services and buildings.[37]
Public reaction
The Al-Azhar decision prompted heated discussions in the media, with debates on religion, personal freedom, the role of religious institutions in society, and the identity of Egyptian society. Even though this was not the first decision concerning the wearing of the niqāb, the fact that the order came from Egypt's highest seat of Islamic teaching provoked outcries from both conservatives and civil liberty campaigners.
To prevent further public outrage, the Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq directed that preachers at ministry mosques would not be allowed to mention the niqāb in their sermons.[38] Rights activists from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights called the ban an infringement on personal liberties when "according to the constitution, no one has the right to force women not to wear them." [39] Students who wore the niqāb were outraged when they offered to remove their niqābs at the entrance for security but were forbidden from staying in the dormitories wearing the niqāb. The Muslim Brotherhood also questioned the government's legal authority over Al-Azhar. Their leader argued that Tantawi was not entitled to make any decisions to limit the freedom of women to wear what they see as an expression of modesty, especially in the grounds of a religious institution.[40] He argued that since there is no text that forbids a woman from wearing the niqāb, the Sheikh of Al Azhar violates the Shari'a. The Muslim Brotherhood in parliament claimed that the decision to ban the veil would violate the Constitution, as Article II of the Constitution. This Article stipulates that "Islam is the official state religion and Arabic the official language, and Islamic Shari'a is the main source of legislation".[41] The ban also violates Article XVIII of the Constitution relating to the right to education. ".[41] In addition, it violates Article 40 of the Constitution, which states that "citizens are equal before the law, they are equal in rights and duties without discrimination because of sex, origin, language, religion or creed".[41]
The Qatar based Islamic Scholar, Yusuf al Qaradawi while saying that the Niqab is not a religious obligation he respects those who believe it is and says that the state has no right to restrict women from adopting this type of dress [42]. He states:
No Muslim ruler or official has the right to ban the niqab. If there is no ban on those who are indecently dressed, how come we prevent a woman from donning the niqab
He does however make an exception for purposes of security,
There is an exception, however, in certain circumstances when it is needed to identify the girl or woman, such as taking a photo of her for an ID card or passport, or when there is an exam and it is feared that a girl may secretly replace another. In such cases, she has to show her face for identification
[43]

Opponents to the niqāb ban believed that banning the niqāb for reasons of security was disingenuous. The government, in their opinion, through the education ministry's and Al-Azhar's ban, were targeting the wearing of the niqāb itself.[44]
Banning the niqāb during exams
Despite that the niqāb ban was limited to all-female settings, the al-Azhar niqāb ban still created public controversy. However, in January 2010, the ban extended to mixed settings. The Administrative Judiciary Court allowed universities to ban female students who wear the niqāb from taking mid-year exams. The courts said that it did not aim to limit the women's freedoms but claimed that the niqāb allowed students to disguise themselves as other candidates, so banning it in exams ensured equal opportunity to all students.[45] The Presidents of Ain Shams, Cairo, and Helwan Universities have barred over 200 students wearing the niqāb from taking the exams.[45] Because the ban was limited to times and places of examinations, the Court reportedly found that the ban did not contradict the ruling in 2007.
In protest to the ban, over twenty students wore protective facial masks asserting that they were wearing the masks simply to protect them from the H1N1 virus.[46]Protests of women who wore the niqāb and prohibited from taking their examinations took place in front of the universities.[47] These female students filed lawsuits demanding that they be allowed to take their exams after checking their identity. Some girls proposed that the females wearing niqāb could all go in one room, unveil, and be monitored by women.[47] Even though the ban was enforced during the first academic semester, another decision was made allowing them to enter the examination halls at the end of the academic year after checking their identity cards.[48] In addition, fourteen women of the teaching staff in Cairo and Ayn Shams universities filed a lawsuit complaining that they were denied their right to put on the niqāb while exercising their duties of supervising university exams and teaching with their niqāb on. These women pointed to the court decision earlier made allowing Iman al-Zayni to wear her niqāb at AUC.[49] And in May 2010, Administrative Judicial Court issued a decision suspending the enforcement of the decision banning women members of the university teaching staff, who put on the niqāb veil, from appearing in the examination halls.[49] However, the battle still continues when Ain Shams University decided to ban niqāb-wearing faculty members from teaching at the university and entering lectures starting the 2010-2011 academic year when educational activities require communication between the students and faculty .[49]
Global outcomes by Al-Azhar controversy
The recent debates about the niqāb in Egypt have initiated and added on to other Arab and European governments discussing the ban of the niqāb. Encouraged by the firm stance the Azhar institution took against the niqāb, European governments felt more comfortable to openly criticize the niqāb. For example, only one day after news of Tantawi’s possible ban hit the media, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his right-wing coalition, the anti-immigration Northern League party, or the Lega Nord presented a proposal to ban the niqāb.[50] Italian politicians leading the charge quoted Tantawi in support of their goal.[50] On November 26, 2009, Italy was the first European country to pass a law banning the wearing of the niqāb in streets or public places.[50] Police are authorized to demand that the women remove it, and that they pay a fine for breaking the law.
On September 14, 2010, the French parliament passed a law prohibiting wearing the niqāb in public.[51] The ban will come into force at the beginning of next year if it is not overturned. Abdel Muti al-Bayyumi, a leading cleric at Al-Azhar applauded France's ban on the niqāb.[51] He publicly gave his support to the French and stated that his position against the niqāb was actually older than France's.[51] In addition, he said he wanted to send a message to Muslims in France and Europe in that the niqāb has no basis in Islam, and that those who wear the niqāb in France are not giving a good impression of Islam.[51]
See also
• French ban on full length Islamic veils
• Islamic dress controversy in Europe
• List of types of sartorial hijab
References
1. ^ a b Slackman, Michael (28 Jan 2007). "In Egypt, A new Battle Begins over the veil". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
2. ^ Baron, Margot (2005). Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics. University of California Press. pp. 32.
3. ^ El Guindi, Fadwa (1999). Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance. Oxford. pp. 180.
4. ^ a b Abdel Kader, Soha (1987). Egyptian Women in a Changing Society, 1899-1987. Lynne Rienner. pp. 17.
5. ^ El Guindi, Fadwa (1999). Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance. Oxford.
6. ^ Mariscotti, Cathlyn (2008). Gender and Class in the Egyptian Women's Movement. Syracuse University. pp. 130.
7. ^ Amin, Qasim (1992). The Liberation of Women. American University in Cairo.
8. ^ Ahmed, Leila (1992). Women and Gender in Islam. Yale University. p. 140.ISBN 9780300055832.
9. ^ Ahmed, Leila (1992). Women and Gender in Islam. Yale University. pp. 145.
10. ^ Amin, Qasim (1899). Tahrir Al Mara'a. pp. 45.
11. ^ Amin, Qasim (1899). Tahrir Al Mara'a. pp. 1.
12. ^ Amin, Qasim (1899). The Liberation fo Women. pp. 98.
13. ^ a b c d e f El Guindi, Fadwa (1999). Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance. Oxford.
14. ^ a b c Ahmed, Leila (1992). Women and Gender in Islam. Yale University. pp. 179.
15. ^ a b c Shaarawi, Huda (1986). Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist. Virago Press. pp. 16.
16. ^ Badran, Margot (1987). Huda Shaarawi, Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist,. Virago Press. pp. 16.
17. ^ a b c d e f g Reid, Donald (1990). Cairo University and the Making of Modern Egypt. Cambridge University Press. pp. 220–225.
18. ^ Mahmood, Saba (2005). Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton. pp. 53.
19. ^ a b c El Guindi, Fadwa (1999). Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance. Oxford.
20. ^ a b c Wright, Lawrence. "The Man Behind Bin Laden". Retrieved 28 October 2010.
21. ^ a b c d e f g Reid, Donald (1990). Cairo University and the Making of Modern Egypt. Cambridge University Press. pp. 228.
22. ^ Lewis, Reina (2003). Feminist post-colonial theory. Routledge. pp. 590.
23. ^ El Guindi, Fadwa (1999). Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance. Oxford.
24. ^ a b El Guindi, Fadwa (1999). Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance. Oxford.
25. ^ Wright, Lawrence (2007). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Random House. pp. 47.
26. ^ a b Herrera, Linda (2006). Cultures of Arab schooling: critical ethnographies from Egypt. State University of New York. pp. 64.
27. ^ Baha al-Din, Ahmad (March 22, 1988). Al-Ahram.
28. ^ Reid, Donald (1990). Cairo University and the Making of Modern Egypt. Cambridge University Press. pp. 229.
29. ^ "Educating Against Extremism". Middle East times. May 2–8, 1994.
30. ^ a b c d e f Herrera, Linda (2006). Cultures of Arab schooling: critical ethnographies from Egypt. State University of New York. pp. 42.
31. ^ a b Abdelaty, Soha (December 7, 2010). "AUC Face-off". Al-Ahram. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
32. ^ El-Rashidi, Yasmine (July 1, 2004). "Facing Off". Al-Ahram. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
33. ^ a b Maamoun, Amira (March 18, 2007). "AUC Administration Snubs niqāb Verdict". AUC Caravan. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
34. ^ Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt),. October 5, 2009.
35. ^ a b Morrow, Adam (12/11/2009). "Egypt: Dispute Over Veil Spreads". IPS News. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
36. ^ a b Bradley, Matt (October 7, 2009). "niqāb ban rekindles debate in Egypt".The National. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
37. ^ a b "niqāb Ban in University Exams an Excessive Measure". Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. January 5, 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
38. ^ Al- Gumhouriyya (Egypt). October 13, 2009.
39. ^ Afifi, Khalid (10/10/2009). "Tantawi and Banning the niqāb". Ikhwan Al Muslimun. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
40. ^ Al-Atrush, Samer (October 7, 2009). "Al-Azhar chief 'should resign over veil remark'". AFP. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
41. ^ a b c Afifi, Khalid (10/10/2009). "The Prosecution of Tantawi because of the ban on the niqāb". Ilikhwan Il Muslimoon. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
42. ^ "Sheikh Qaradawi's First Interview with Onislam.net". website. IslamOnLine. 18 October 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
43. ^ ibid.
44. ^ Jum'aa, Mahmoud (10/9/2009). "The Muslim Brotherhood Are Against the ban of the niqāb". Al-Jazeera. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
45. ^ a b Zayed, Dina (Jan 20, 2010). "Egypt court overturns ban on full veils in exams". Reuters. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
46. ^ "Egyptian University Presidents set on banning niqāb during exams. Regardless, these students were banned from taking their exams.". Ikhwan Web. 1/13/2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
47. ^ a b [(http://www.islammemo.cc/akhbar/arab/2009/12/07/91516.html) "The President of Cairo University: I won't permit the niqāb"]. Mofakarat Il Islam. 12/7/2009. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
48. ^ "the Administrative Judicial Court confirms the right of niqāb veiled women to teach at the university.". Al-Sha'b, Cairo. 25 May 10.
49. ^ a b c Kamel, Mohammad (9/03/2010). "Ain Shams University bans niqāb-wearing teachers from lectures". Al-Masry Al Youm (Egypt). Retrieved 28 October 2010.
50. ^ a b c "Italy Bans niqāb". Akhbar Al-Khaleej,. November 24, 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
51. ^ a b c d "Egypt Al-Azhar scholar supports French niqāb ban". AFP. September 15, 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2010.


Women in Islam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The study of women in Islam investigates the role of women within the religion of Islam.[1] The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by both Islamic texts and the history and culture of theMuslim world.[2] While men and women have different roles within Islam, some argue that the Qur'an makes it clear that they are equal[3][4][5], however the Qu'ran states in 4:34, "Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient and guard in the husband's absence what Allah orders them to guard."
Sharia (Islamic law) provides for complementarianism,[6] differences between women's and men's roles, rights, and obligations. Majority Muslim countries give women varying degrees of rights with regards tomarriage, divorce, civil rights, legal status, dress code, and education based on different interpretations. Scholars and other commentators vary as to whether they are just and whether they are a correct interpretation of religious imperatives. Conservatives argue that differences between men and women are due to different status, while liberal Muslims, Muslim feminists, and others argue in favor of other interpretations. Some women have achieved high political office in Muslim majority states.
Sources of influence
Islamic law is the product of Qur'anic guidelines, as understood by Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), as well as of the interpretations derived from the traditions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad (hadith), that were agreed upon by majority of Muslim scholars as authentic beyond doubt based on the science of hadith[2][7] These interpretations and their application were shaped by the historical context of the Muslim world at the time they were written.[2] Many of the earliest writings were from a time of tribal warfare which could have been inappropriate for the 21st century.
The Marxist writer, Valentine M. Moghadam, argues that the position of women is mostly influenced by the extent of urbanization, industrialization, proletarization and political ploys of the state managers rather than culture or intrinsic properties of Islam; Islam, per Moghadam, is neither more nor less patriarchal than other world religions, especially Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism.[8][9]


Early costumes of Arabwomen.
"The dowry, previously regarded as a bride-price paid to the father, became a nuptial gift retained by the wife as part of her personal property."[10][11]
Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a "status" but rather as a "contract", in which the woman's consent was imperative.[10][11][12] "Women were given inheritance rights in a patriarchal societythat had previously restricted inheritance to male relatives."[10] Annemarie Schimmel states that "compared to the pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law, to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work."[13]
William Montgomery Watt states that Muhammad, in the historical context of his time, can be seen as a figure who promoted women’s rights and improved things considerably. Watt explains: "At the time Islam began, the conditions of women were terrible - they had no right to own property, were supposed to be the property of the man, and if the man died everything went to his sons." Muhammad, however, by, "instituting rights of property ownership, inheritance, education and divorce, gave women certain basic safeguards."[14]
During his life, Muhammad married eleven women depending upon the differing accounts of who were his wives. His last wife, Aisha was six or seven years old when she was married, though at the time women married at an early age. Muhammad saw in her a great woman of the future who was best suited to perform the duties of a wife and of a teacher, whose words and deeds had to be preserved for the guidance of mankind.[15][16][17][18] Aisha was nine years old when Muhammad consummated the marriage.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Aisha's age at the time of her marriage consummation has been a subject of criticism and controversy. Many Shiite scholars[who?] dispute Aisha was six or seven when Muhammad married her. They contend that she was between thirteen and sixteen when he married her. Furthermore, they believe Muhammad's most favored wife was his first wife, Khadija. He married her while he was in Mecca, but she died before he migrated to Medina. Muhammad called the year of Khadija's death the "Year of Sorrow." When Muhammad settled in Medina and married several wives, he would often mention Khadija and her contributions to Islam. Some of Muhammad's wives would be uncomfortable when he mentioned Khadija. The Prophet was once disappointed with Aisha because she complained when he mentioned Khadija.
Female education
See also: Madrasah#Female_education
Historically, women played an important role in the foundation of many Islamic educational institutions, such as Fatima al-Fihri's founding of the University of Al Karaouine in 859 CE. This continued through to the Ayyubid dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries, when 160 mosquesand madrasahs were established in Damascus, 26 of which were funded by women through the Waqf (charitable trust or trust law) system. Half of all the royal patrons for these institutions were also women.[26]
According to the Sunni scholar Ibn Asakir in the 12th century, there were various opportunities for female education in what is known as themedieval Islamic world. He writes that women could study, earn ijazahs (academic degrees), and qualify as scholars (ulamā’) and teachers. This was especially the case for learned and scholarly families, who wanted to ensure the highest possible education for both their sons and daughters.[27] Ibn Asakir had himself studied under 80 different female teachers in his time. In nineteenth-century West Africa, Nana Asma’uwas a leading Islamic scholar, poet, teacher and an exceptionally prolific Muslim female writer who wrote more than 60 works. Female education in the Islamic world was inspired by Muhammad's wives: Khadijah, a successful businesswoman, and Aisha, a renowned hadith scholar and military leader. The education allowed was often restricted to religious instruction. According to a hadith attributed toMuhammad, he praised the women of Medina because of their desire for religious knowledge:[28]
"How splendid were the women of the ansar; shame did not prevent them from becoming learned in the faith."
While it was not common for women to enroll as students in formal classes, it was common for women to attend informal lectures and study sessions at mosques, madrassas and other public places. For example, the attendance of women at the Fatimid "sessions of wisdom" (majālis al-ḥikma) was noted by various historians including Ibn al-Tuwayr and al-Muṣabbiḥī.[29] Similarly, although unusual in 15th-centuryIran, both women and men were in attendance at the intellectual gatherings of the Ismailis where women were addressed directly by theImam.[30]
While women accounted for no more than one percent of Islamic scholars prior to the 12th century, there was a large increase of female scholars after this. In the 15th century, Al-Sakhawi devotes an entire volume of his 12-volume biographical dictionary Daw al-lami to female scholars, giving information on 1,075 of them.[31]
Recently there has been several female Muslim scholars including Sebeca Zahra Hussain who is a prominent female scholar from the Sunni sect.
Female employment
See also: Islamic economics in the world
The labor force in the Caliphate were employed from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, while both men and women were involved in diverse occupations and economic activities.[32] Women were employed in a wide range of commercial activities and diverse occupations[33]in the primary sector (as farmers, for example), secondary sector (as construction workers, dyers, spinners, etc.) and tertiary sector (asinvestors, doctors, nurses, presidents of guilds, brokers, peddlers, lenders, scholars, etc.).[34] Muslim women also held a monopoly over certain branches of the textile industry,[33] the largest and most specialized and market-oriented industry at the time, in occupations such asspinning, dyeing, and embroidery. In comparison, female property rights and wage labour were relatively uncommon in Europe until theIndustrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries.[35]
In the 12th century, the famous Islamic philosopher and qadi (judge) Ibn Rushd, known to the West as Averroes, claimed that women were equal to men in all respects and possessed equal capacities to shine in peace and in war, citing examples of female warriors among theArabs, Greeks and Africans to support his case.[36] In early Muslim history, examples of notable female Muslims who fought during theMuslim conquests and Fitna (civil wars) as soldiers or generals included Nusaybah Bint k’ab Al Maziniyyah[37] a.k.a. Umm Amarah, Aisha,[38] Kahula and Wafeira.[39]
A unique feature of medieval Muslim hospitals was the role of female staff, who were rarely employed in hospitals elsewhere in the world. Medieval Muslim hospitals commonly employed female nurses. Muslim hospitals were also the first to employ female physicians, the most famous being two female physicians from the Banu Zuhr family who served the Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur in the 12th century.[40] This was necessary due to the segregation between male and female patients in Islamic hospitals. Later in the 15th century, female surgeons were illustrated for the first time in Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu's Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery).[41]
Marriage and divorce
See also: Talaq


Girl with headcovering.
In contrast to the Western world where divorce was relatively uncommon until modern times, and in contrast to the low rates of divorce in the modern Middle East, divorce was a more common occurrence in certain states of the late medieval Muslim world. In the Mamluk Sultanate and Ottoman Empire, the rate of divorce was higher than it is today in the modern Middle East.[42]
In medieval Egypt, Al-Sakhawi recorded the marital history of 500 women, the largest sample of married women in the Middle Ages, and found that at least a third of all women in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria married more than once, with many marrying three or more times. According to Al-Sakhawi, as many as three out of ten marriages in 15th century Cairo ended in divorce.[43] In the early 20th century, some villages in western Java and the Malay peninsula had divorce rates as high as 70%.[42]
Gender roles
Main article: Gender roles in Islam
The Quran expresses two main views on the role of women. It both stresses the equality of women and men before God in terms of their religious duties (i.e. belief in God and his messenger, praying, fasting, paying zakat (charity), making hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca/ Medina)) and places them "under" the care of men (i.e. men are financially responsible for their wives). In one place it states: "Men are the maintainers and protectors of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women)." The Quran explains that men and women are equal in creation and in the afterlife. Surah an-Nisa' 4:1 states that men and women are created from a single soul (nafs wahidah). One person does not come before the other, one is not superior to the other, and one is not the derivative of the other. A woman is not created for the purpose of a man. Rather, they are both created for the mutual benefit of each other.[Qur'an 4:34]
Financial matters
Historically, many scholars maintain that women in Muslim societies had more property rights than in many other parts of the world.[44]However, as the world has modernised, women's rights in many Muslim dominated countries are comparatively restricted. As Valentine M. Moghadam argues, "much of the economic modernization [of women] was based on income from oil, and some came from foreign investment and capital inflows. Economic development alters the status of women in different ways across nations and classes."[45]
Financial obligations
Women's rights in the Qur'an are based around the marriage contract. A woman, according to Islamic tradition, does not have to give her pre-marriage possessions to her husband and receives a mahr (dowery) which she is allowed to keep.[46] Furthermore, any earnings that a woman receives through employment or business is hers to keep and need not be contributed towards family expenses. This is because the financial responsibility for reasonable housing, food and other household expenses for the family, including the spouse, falls entirely on the husband. In traditional Islamic law, a woman is also not responsible for the upkeep of the home and may demand payment for any work she does in the domestic sphere.[47] This varies considerably in practice however.
Inheritance
Main article: Islamic inheritance jurisprudence#Women and inheritance
In Islam, women are entitled to the right of inheritance, Qur'an 4:7. In general, Islam allows females half the inheritance share available to males who have the same degree of relation to the deceased. Qur'an 4:11. This difference derives from men's obligations to financially support their families.[2][48]
The Qur'an contains specific and detailed guidance regarding the division of inherited wealth, such as Surah Baqarah, chapter 2 verse 180, chapter 2 verse 240; Surah Nisa, chapter 4 verse 7-9, chapter 4 verse 19, chapter 4 verse 33; and Surah Maidah, chapter 5 verse 106-108. Three verses in the Qur'an describe the share of close relatives, Surah Nisah chapter 4 verses 11, 12 and 176. However, many Islamic majority countries have allowed inherently unfair (towards woman)inheritance laws and/or customs to dominate.
Employment
Patterns of women's employment vary throughout the Muslim world: as of 2005, 16% of Pakistani women were "economically active" (either employed, or unemployed but available to furnish labor), whereas 52% of Indonesian women were.[49]
Women are allowed to work in Islam, subject to certain conditions, such as if a woman is in financial need and her employment does not cause her to neglect her important role as a mother and wife.[48][50] It has been claimed that it is the responsibility of the Muslim community to organize work for women, so that she can do so in a Muslim cultural atmosphere, where her rights (as set out in the Qur'an) are respected.[50] Islamic law however, permits women to work in Islamic conditions.[50]
 The work should not require the man or the woman to violate Islamic law (e.g., serving alcohol), and be mindful of the woman's safety.
 If the work requires the woman to leave her home, she must maintain her 'modesty' just as with men.
Due to cultural and not religious beliefs, in some cases, when women have the right to work and are educated, women's job opportunities may in practice be unequal to those of men. In Egypt for example, women have limited opportunities to work in the private sector because women are still expected to put their role in the family first, which causes men to be seen as more reliable in the long term.[51]
An indicator of the attitude of the Qur'an to women in the workplace is indicated by the quotes used to justify women working. These are the examples of two female shepherds Qur'an 28:23, and Khadijah (prophet Muhammad's wife), who was an eminent businesswoman. Khadijah is called up as a role model for females in the Qur'an.[50]
The situation in Morocco is indicative of women's place in the workforce. While many women work outside home in responsible positions in Morocco, the law continues to treat them as minors. They are specifically excluded from fields of work along with children below the age of 16. These laws have been presented as a 'protection' for women or on moral grounds. The presumption is that women are less able to protect themselves, or that men are better able to resist the corrupting influences in such places.[52]
Legal and criminal matters
The status of women's testimony in Islam is disputed. Some Islamic jurists have held that certain types of testimony by women may not be accepted. In other cases, the testimony of two women can equal that of one man (although the Qur'an says two women and two male are needed but if a male cannot find another male he may carry this testimony out himself). According to Averroes, a 12th-century Maliki, "There is a general consensus among the jurists that in financial transactions a case stands proven by the testimony of a just man and two women." (Ibn Rushd. Bidayatu’l-Mujtahid, 1st ed., vol. 4, (Beirut: Daru’l-Ma‘rifah, 1997), p. 311). Justifications for this discrimination have been put forward including: women's temperament, women's lack of interest in legal matters,[53] and also the need to spare women from the "burden of testifying".[54] In other areas, women's testimony may be accepted on an equal basis with men's.[55][56] The verse itself however relates to finances only.[57]
Controversial tribal customs such as diyyat or blood money remain an integral part of Islamic jurisprudence. By implementation this also discriminates against women. Diyya existed in Arabia since pre-Islamic times.[58][59] While the practice of diyya was affirmed by Muhammed,[59] Islam does not prescribe any specific amount for diyyat nor does it require discrimination between men and women.[60] The Qur'an has left open to debate, its quantity, nature, and other related affairs to be defined by social custom and tradition.[60][61] However in practice, the killing of a woman will generally invoke a lesser diyyat than the killing of a man. Commentators on the status of women in Islam have often focused on disparities in diyyat, the fines paid by killers to victims' next of kin after either intentional or unintentional homicide,[60]between men and women.
Rape
See also: Zina (Arabic)
The majority of Muslim scholars believe that a woman should not be punished for having been coerced into having sex.[62] According to aSunni hadith, the punishment for committing rape is death, there is no blame attached to the victim.[63][64]
Marriage and sexuality


A riverside Muslim wedding in India.
Who may be married?
See also: Islamic marital jurisprudence and Polygyny in Islam
Marriage customs vary in Muslim dominated countries. Cultural customs are sometimes implemented under the cover of Islam. However Islamic law allows polygamy under some conditions.
According to Islamic law (sharia), marriage cannot be forced.[46][65]
Islamic jurists have traditionally held that Muslim women may only enter into marriage with Muslim men,[66] although some contemporary jurists question the basis of this restriction.[66][67][68] This is pursuant to the principle that Muslims may not place themselves in a position inferior to that of the followers of other religions.[69] On the other hand, the Qur'an allows Muslim men to marry women of the People of the Book, a term which includes Jews and Christians, but they must be chaste. However, fiqh law has held that it is makruh(reprehensible, though not outright forbidden) for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman in a non-Muslim country.[66]
Polygamy is permitted under restricted conditions,[70] but it is not widespread.[71] However, it is strongly discouraged in the Qur'an, which says, 'do justice to them all, but you won't be able to, so don't fall for one totally while ignoring other wife(wives)'. This also must be taken in historical context, as this was actually a restriction on the number of wives men of the Arabian tribes can take. Sometimes Pre-Islamic men could have up to eight wives. Women are not allowed to engage in polyandry, whereas men are allowed to engage in polygyny (a man can take up to four wives at any given time as mentioned in the Qur'an).[70] A widow inherits one quarter of the property of her deceased husband, however, if he had children the inheritance reduces to one eighth.
Behaviour within marriage
Main articles: Rights and obligations of spouses in Islam and Islam and domestic violence
The Qur'an considers the love between men and women to be a Sign of God.[Qur'an 30:21] Husbands are asked to be kind to their wives and wives are asked to be kind to their husbands. The Qur'an also encourages discussion and mutual agreement in family decisions.[46]
Muslim scholars have adopted differing interpretations of An-Nisa, 34, a Sura of the Qur'an. In the event where a woman rebels against her husband, Muslim scholars disagree on what is prescribed by the Sura. According to some interpretations, it is permissible for the man to then lightly beat his spouse. However, this is disputed by many scholars who contend that the expression used alludes to temporary physical separation.[72]
Sexuality
Main article: Islamic sexual jurisprudence
Some hold that Islam enjoins sexual pleasure within marriage; see Asra Nomani's polemic "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom". Some examples of this influence are set out below.
Qur'an 4:24— Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess: Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property,- desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree Mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.
Qur'an 23:1-6—The Believers must (eventually) win through—those who humble themselves in their prayers; who avoid vain talk; who are active in deeds of charity; who abstain from sex; except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess—for (in their case) they are free from blame.
Qur'an 33:50—O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee . . .
Qur'an 70:22-30—Not so those devoted to Prayer—those who remain steadfast to their prayer; and those in whose wealth is a recognized right for the (needy) who asks and him who is prevented (for some reason from asking); and those who hold to the truth of the Day of Judgement; and those who fear the displeasure of their Lord—for their Lord’s displeasure is the opposite of Peace and Tranquillity—and those who guard their chastity, except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess—for (then) they are not to be blamed.
A high value is placed on female chastity (not to be confused with celibacy). To protect women from accusations of unchaste behaviour, the scripture lays down severe punishments towards those who make false allegations about a woman's chastity. However, in some societies, an accusation is rarely questioned and the woman who is accused rarely has a chance to defend herself in a fair and just manner. This is often due to the local cultural customs rather than as a direct result of classic Islamic teaching.
Female genital cutting has been erroneously associated with Islam, but in fact is practiced predominantly in Africa and in certain areas has acquired a religious dimension[73] The factuality of this is disputed though, as a UNICEF study of fourteen African countries found no correlation between religion and prevalence of female genital mutilation.[74] In Mauritania, where "health campaigners estimate that more than 70 percent of Mauritanian girls undergo the partial or total removal of their external genitalia for non-medical reasons", 34 Islamic scholars signed a fatwa banning the practice in January 2010. Their aim was to prevent people from citing religion as a justification for genital mutilation. The authors cited the work of Islamic legal expert Ibn al-Hajj as support for their assertion that "[s]uch practices were not present in the Maghreb countries over the past centuries". FGM is "not an instinctive habit, according to the Malkis; therefore, it was abandoned in northern and western regions of the country," added the authors.[75][76]
Divorce
Main article: Talaq
In Islam, in some circumstances, a woman can initiate a divorce. According to Sharia Law, a woman can file a case in the courts for a divorce in a process called "Khal'a", meaning "Break up". However, under most Islamic schools of jurisprudence, both partners must unanimously agree to the divorce in order for it to be granted. To prevent irrational decisions and for the sake of the family's stability, Islam enjoins that both parties observe a waiting period (of roughly three months) before the divorce is finalised.[77]
Sharia Law states that divorce has to be confirmed on three separate occasions and not, as is commonly believed, simply three times at once. The first two instances the woman and the man are still in legal marriage. The third occasion of pronouncing divorce in the presence of the woman, the man is no longer legally the husband and therefore has to leave the house. The purpose of this procedure of divorce in Islam is to encourage reconciliation where possible. Even after divorce, the woman should wait three monthly cycles during which her husband remains responsible for her and her children's welfare and maintenance. He is not permitted to drive her out of the house.[78] This process may leave the woman destitute should her family not take her back or the ex-husband fail to support her and possibly his children.
After the third pronouncement they are not allowed to get back together as husband and wife, unless first the wife is divorced in another lawful and fully consummated marriage. This rule was made to discourage men from easily using the verbal declaration of divorce by knowing that after the third time there will be no way to return to the wife and thus encourage men's tolerance and patience.
Usually, assuming her husband demands a divorce, the divorced wife keeps her mahr (dowry), both the original gift and any supplementary property specified in the marriage contract. She is also given child support until the age of weaning, at which point the child's custody will be settled by the couple or by the courts.
In actual practice and outside of Islamic judicial theory, a woman’s right to divorce is often extremely limited compared with that of men in theMiddle East.[79] While men can divorce their wives easily, women face many legal and financial obstacles. In practice in most of the Muslim world today divorce can be quite involved as there may be separate secular procedures to follow as well.
This contentious area of religious practice and tradition is being increasingly challenged by those promoting more liberal interpretations of Islam.
Movement and travel
Wives are required to inform their spouses before leaving home, and get the consent of their husbands. Although no limitation or prohibition against women's travelling alone is mentioned in the Qur'an, there is a debate in some Islamic sects, especially Salafis, regarding whether women may travel without a mahram (unmarriageable relative).[80] Some scholars state that a woman may not travel by herself on a journey that takes longer than three days (equivalent to 48 miles in medieval Islam).[81] According to the European Council for Fatwa and Research, this prohibition arose from fears for women's safety when travel was more dangerous.[80] Some scholars relax this prohibition for journeys likely to be safe, such as travel with a trustworthy group of men or men and women, or travel via a modern train or plane when the woman will be met upon arrival.[80]
Sheikh Ayed Al-Qarni, a Saudi Islamic scholar known for his moderate views, has said that neither the Qur'an nor the sunnah prohibits women from driving and that it is better for a woman to drive herself than to be driven by a stranger without a legal escort.[82] (He also stated, however, that he "personally will not allow [his] wife or daughters or sisters to drive."[82]) Women are forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia per a 1990 fatwa (religious ruling);[83] Saudi Arabia is currently the only Muslim country that bans women from driving.[84][85] When the Talibanruled Afghanistan, they issued a 2001 decree that also banned women from driving.[86] John Esposito, professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, has argued that these restrictions originate from cultural customs and not Islam.[84]
Dress code

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Main articles: Hijab and Hijab by country
Hijab is the Qur'anic requirement that Muslims, both male and female, dress and behave modestly. The most important Qur'anic verse relating to hijab is sura 24:31, which says, "And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not to display their adornment except that which ordinarily appears thereof and to draw their headcovers over their chests and not to display their adornment except to their [maharim]..."
Sartorial hijab, and the veil in particular, have often been viewed by many as a sign of oppression of Muslim women.[87] It has also been the cause of much debate, especially in Europe amid increasing immigration of Muslims;[88] the 2006 United Kingdom debate over veils and the 2004 French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools are two notable examples.
Women in religious life
In Islam, there is no difference between men and women's relationship to God; they receive identical rewards and punishments for their conduct.[89]
According to a saying attributed to Muhammad, women are allowed to go to mosques.[90] However, as Islam spread, it became unusual for women to worship in mosques because of fears of unchastity caused by interaction between sexes; this condition persisted until the late 1960s.[91] Since then, women have become increasingly involved in the mosque, though men and women generally worship separately.[92](Muslims explain this by citing the need to avoid distraction during prayer prostrations that raise the buttocks while the forehead touches the ground.[93]) Separation between sexes ranges from men and women on opposite sides of an aisle, to men in front of women (as was the case in the time of Muhammad), to women in second-floor balconies or separate rooms accessible by a door for women only.[93]
In Islam's earlier history, female religious scholars were relatively common. Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a Sunni religious scholar, has compiled biographies of 8,000 female jurists, and orientalist Ignaz Goldziher earlier estimated that 15 percent of medieval hadith scholars were women.[94] After the 16th century, however, female scholars became fewer,[94] and today — while female activists and writers are relatively common — there has not been a significant female jurist in over 200 years.[95] Opportunities for women's religious education exist, but cultural barriers often keep women from pursuing such a vocation.[94]
Women's right to become imams, however, is disputed by many. A fundamental role of an imam (religious leader) in a mosque is to lead thesalah (congregational prayers). Generally, women are not allowed to lead mixed prayers. However, some argue that Muhammad gave permission to Ume Warqa to lead a mixed prayer at the mosque of Dar.[96][97]
Hui women are self aware of their relative freedom as Chinese women in contrast to the status of Arab women in countries like Saudi Arabiawhere Arab women are restricted and forced to wear encompassing clothing. Hui women point out these restrictions as "low status", and feel better to be Chinese than to be Arab, claiming that it is Chinese women's advanced knowledge of the Qur'an which enables them to have equality between men and women.[98]
Women and politics


The late Benazir Bhutto, formerprime minister of Pakistan was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state.[99]
See also: Female political leaders in Islam and in Muslim-majority countries and Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries
The only hadith relating to female political leadership is Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:59:709, in which Muhammad is recorded as saying that people with a female ruler will never be successful.(Muhammed was referring to the Persian people. He said, "Such people as ruled by a lady will never be successful." [100] (The al-Bukhari collection is generally regarded as authentic, though one Muslim feminist has questioned the reliability of the recorder of this particular hadith.[100]) However, many classical Islamic scholars, such asal-Tabari, supported female leadership.[100] In early Islamic history, women including Aisha, Ume Warqa, and Samra Binte Wahaib took part in political activities.[96] Other historical Muslim female leaders includeRazia Sultana, who ruled the Sultanate of Delhi from 1236 to 1239,[101][102] and Shajarat ad-Durr, who ruledEgypt from 1250 to 1257.[103]
In the past several decades, many countries in which Muslims are a majority, including Indonesia,[104]Pakistan,[105] Bangladesh,[106] and Turkey,[107] and Kyrgyzstan have been led by women. Nearly one-third of the Parliament of Egypt also consists of women.[108]


Segregated Iraqi women waiting to vote in elections, 2005.
According to Sheikh Zoubir Bouchikhi, Imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston’s Southeast Mosque, nothing in Islam specifically allows or disallows voting by women.[109] Until recently most Muslim nations were non-democratic, but most today allow their citizens to have some level of voting and control over their government. The disparate times at which women’s suffrage was granted in Muslim-majority countries is indicative of the varied traditions and values present within the Muslim world. Azerbaijan has had women's suffrage since 1918.
Saudi women have been allowed to vote in some elections.[110][111]\\
Modern debate on the status of women in Islam


Shirin Ebadi, Iran's famous women activist
Within the Muslim community, conservatives and Islamic feminists have used Islamic doctrine as the basis for discussion of women's rights, drawing on the Quran, the hadith, and the lives of prominent women in the early period of Muslim history as evidence.[112] Where conservatives have seen evidence that existing gender asymmetries are divinely ordained, feminists have seen more egalitarian ideals in early Islam.[112] Still others have argued that this discourse is essentialist and a historical, and have urged that Islamic doctrine not be the only framework within which discussion occurs.[112]
Conservatives and the Islamic movement
Main articles: Islamic revival and Islamism
Conservatives reject the assertion that different laws prescribed for men and women imply that men are more valuable than women. Ali ibn Musa Al-reza reasoned that at the time of marriage a man has to pay something to his prospective bride, and that men are responsible for both their wives' and their own expenses but women have no such responsibility.[113]
The nebulous revivalist movement termed Islamism is one of the most dynamic movements within Islam in the 20th and 21st centuries. The experience of women in Islamist states has been varied. Women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan faced treatment condemned by the international community.[114] Women were forced to wear the burqa in public,[115] not allowed to work,[116] not allowed to be educated after the age of eight,[117] and faced public flogging and execution for violations of the Taliban's laws.[118][119] The position of women in Iran, which has been a theocracy since its 1979 revolution, is more complex. Iranian Islamists are ideologically in favour of allowing female legislators inIran's parliament[120] and 60% of university students are women.[121]
Liberal Islam, Islamic feminism, and other progressive criticism
Liberal Muslims have urged that ijtihad, a form of critical thinking, be used to develop a more progressive form of Islam with respect to the status of women.[122] In addition, Islamic feminists have advocated for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, pioneers of Islamic feminism have also used secular and western feminist discourses and have sought to include Islamic feminism in the larger global feminist movement. Islamic feminists seek to highlight the teachings of equality in Islam to question patriarchal interpretations of Islamic teachings.[123] Others point out the incredible amount of flexibility of shariah law, which can offer greater protections for women if the political will to do is present.[124][125]
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, international attention was focused on the condition of women in the Muslim world.[126] Critics asserted that women are not treated as equal members of Muslim societies[127][128] and criticized Muslim societies for condoning this treatment.[127] Some critics have gone so far as to make allegations of gender apartheid due to women's status.[129] At least one critic has alleged that Western academics, especially feminists, have ignored the plight of Muslim women in order to be considered "politically correct."[130]
The Indonesian Islamic professor Nasaruddin Umar is at the forefront of a reform movement from within Islam that aims at giving women equal status. Among his works is a book "The Qur'an for women", which provides a new feminist interpretation.
See also
Religious topics
 Female figures in the Qur'an
 Muhammad's wives
 Islamic feminism
 Sex segregation and Islam
Political topics
 Female political leaders in Islam and in Muslim-majority countries
 Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries
Related topics
 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
 Namus
 Women in Arab societies
 List of Muslim reformers
References
1. ^ Oxford Islamic Studies Online
2. ^ a b c d Haddad and Esposito, pp. xii
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ The position of women in Islam by Dr. Jamal A. Badawi, edited by Ayesha Bint Mahmood. I.D.C.I - Page 6
6. ^ Karin van Nieuwkerk. Women Embracing Islam: Gender and Conversion in the West. University of Texas Press. Retrieved 2007-12-31. "Secular feminists in Muslim societies demanded full equality in the public sphere, calling for access to education, work, and political participation as part of women's self-development and the empowering of the soceity in the decolonizing process. Within this feminist framework women accepted the notion of complementarity in the private sphere, upholding the notion of male predominance, regarded as benevolent predominance in the family. They called upon men to fulfull their duties, protecting and provididing in ways that upheld the rights and dignity of women."
7. ^ An Introduction to the Science of Hadith
8. ^ Unni Wikan, review of Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East, American Ethnologist, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Nov., 1995), pp. 1078-1079
9. ^ Valentine M. Moghadam. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East. (Lynne Rienner Publishers, USA, 1993) p. 5
10. ^ a b c Esposito (2005) p. 79
11. ^ a b Khadduri (1978)
12. ^ Esposito (2004), p. 339
13. ^ Schimmel (1992) p.65
14. ^ Maan, McIntosh (1999)
15. ^ Muhammad Husayn Haykal. The Life of Muhammad: "From Marriage to Prophethood." Translated by Isma'il Razi A. al-Faruqi
16. ^ Muhammad al-Tijani in his The Shi'a: The Real Followers of the Sunnah on Al-Islam.org note 274[dead link]
17. ^ Ibn Hisham, As-Sirah an-Nabawiyyah, vol. 2, pp. 257-258
18. ^ Muhammad Husayn Haykal, The Life of Muhammad (North American Trust Publications, p. 374
19. ^ Watt, W. Montgomery (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press. p. 229. ISBN 0-19-881078-4. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
20. ^ D. A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994, p. 40
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22. ^ Barlas (2002), p.125-126
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66. ^ a b c On Christian Men marrying Muslim Women
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119. ^ A woman being flogged in public
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129. ^ Feminist author Phyllis Chesler, for example, asserted: "Islamists oppose the ideals of dignity and equality for women by their practice of gender apartheid."[5] For further examples, seehttp://www.google.com/search?q=%22gender+apartheid%22+islam
130. ^ Lopez, Katherine Jean. A survey conducted by the Gallup Organization found that most Muslim women did not see themselves as oppressed.[6] "Witness to the Death of Feminism: Phyllis Chesler on Her Sisterhood at War." National Review (March 08, 2006).
Works cited
 El Fadl, Khaled Abou. "The Death Penalty, Mercy, and Islam: A Call for Retrospection." In Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning (Erik C. Owens, John David Carlson, and Eric P. Elshtain, eds.). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (2004), ISBN 0-8028-2172-3.
 Friedmann, Yohanan (2003). Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521026994.
 Glassé, Cyril. The New Encyclopedia of Islam (2002), AltaMira Press, ISBN 0-7591-0189-2.
 Yvonne Haddad and John Esposito. Islam, Gender, and Social Change, Published 1998. Oxford University Press, US. ISBN 0-19-511357-8.
 Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Kathleen M. Moore, and Jane I Smith. Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today.Oxford University Press (2006): ISBN 0-19-517783-5.
 Hessini, L., 1994, Wearing the Hijab in Contemporary Morocco: Choice and Identity, in Göçek, F. M. & Balaghi, S., Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East: Tradition, Identity & Power, New York, Columbia University Press
 Suad Joseph and Afsaneh Najmabadi. Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures BRILL (2005), ISBN 90-04-12818-2
 Javed Ahmed Ghamidi. Mizan. Al-Mawrid (2001–present).
 Levy, Reuben (1969). The Social Structure of Islam. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
Scripture
 Translations of the Qur’an, Chapter 4: Women
Books
 Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt, Women in Iraq: Beyond the Rhetoric, Middle East Report, No. 239, Summer 2006
 Bernadette Andrea, Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2008 [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521867649 Amazon.com: Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature (9780521867641): Bernadette Andrea: Books
 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical roots of a modern debate, Yale University Press, 1992
 Saddeka Arebi, Women and Words in Saudi Arabia: The Politics of Literary Discourse, Columbia University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-231-08421-8
 Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, London, HarperCollins/Routledge, 2001
 Alya Baffoun, Women and Social Change in the Muslim Arab World, In Women in Islam. Pergamon Press, 1982.
 Nonie Darwish, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law, Thomas Nelson, 2008. ISBN 9781595551610
 John Esposito and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Islam, Gender, and Social Change, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-511357-8
 Gavin Hambly, Women in the Medieval Islamic World, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999, ISBN 0-312-22451-6
 Gorshunova, Olga, Uzbekskaia Zhenshchina: Sotsial`nyi Status, Sem`ia, Religiia. Po Materialam Ferganskoi Doliny (The Uzbek woman: Social status, family, religion: Based on materials from the Fergana Valley), Moscow: IEA RAS, 2006. ISBN 5201008860. (Russian)
 Suad Joseph, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Leiden: Brill, Vol 1-4, 2003-2007.
 Valentine Moghadam (ed), Gender and National Identity.
Articles
 Gorshunova, Olga, 1993, Childlessness and religious rites of Uzbek people in Grundwerte menschlichen Verhaltens in den Religionen. Ed.by Horst Bủrcle. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, New York, Paris and Wein: Peterlang, 1993.
 Gorshunova, Olga, 2001, Otyncha in Etnoragraficheskoe Obozrenie, 3:134-140.(Russian)
 Oxford Islamic Studies Online - numerous entries dealing with the role of women in Islamic societies.
 www.IslamsWomen.com Muslim Woman Status, Rights, Hijab, Marriage, and More – Official Website.
 The Rights And Duties of Women In Islam
 Women and Islam A set of essays discussing women in Islam, including polygamy, inheritance, marriage to non-Muslims, birth control, and Islamic dress. Also highlighting Quranic and Biblical references concerning women.
 Women in Muslim History: Traditional Perspectives and New Strategies
 My Mother and My Religion: Mothers in Islam
 WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST: PROGRESS OR REGRESS? Middle East Review of International Affairs, Volume 10, No. 2, Article 2 - June 2006
 The Articles, Books and Fatwas Related to Women
 The Status of Women in Islam by Dr. Jamal Badawi
 Women in Islam vs. Women in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
 Women in Islam
 The Noble Women Scholars of Hadeeth
 Division of Inheritance in Islam

List of types of sartorial hijab
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series on
Islamic culture

Architecture

This list of types of sartorial hijab indexes styles of clothing found in predominantly Muslim societies commonly associated with the word hijab. Hijab literally translates as covering, making its definition flexible depending on regional variations in clothing.
Women
The Qur'an states that women should dress modestly in the presence of unfamiliar men.
Gulf-styleAbaya

A type of outer garment from the Persian Gulf region of the Middle East which covers from the head to the feet. It is also becoming increasingly common amongst the conservative women of Pakistan. Traditional abayas are black, and may be either a large square of fabric draped from the shoulders or head, or a long black caftan. The Abaya in the Persian Gulf has increasingly become more of a fashion statement than a mandatory dress-code. Women can often be seen wearing a colorfully designed Abaya, sometimes with the headscarf draped on the shoulders rather than the head. International fashion designers like Galliano, Nina Ricci, and Tom Ford have created Abaya designs for the Gulf market.
Al-amira A two-piece veil. It consists of a close fitting cap, usually made from cotton or polyester, and an accompanying tube-like scarf.
Bushiyya
A veil that is tied on at the forehead and falls to cover the entire face but has no cut-out for the eyes; instead, the fabric is sheer enough to be seen through.
Bukhnukبخنق
This is similar to khimār 2 (see below) but comes down just to the bosom. Sometimes called "Amira hijab" if it has embroidery at the edge.
Afghani Burqaالبرقع الأفغاني
Also known as the Afghan Burqa. Covers the entire body and has a grille over the face that the woman looks through. May have slits for the hands.
East of Arabia Burqa برقع شرق الجزيرة العربية
Married Women wear it in United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Arabsof Southern Iran. This tradition has almost died out in the newer generations. Older women usually not younger than 50, and those living in rural areas can still be seen wearing them.
Chador

An Iranian traditional outer garment that covers the head and body and is a full-length semicircle of fabric but comes down to the ground. Does not have slits for the hands and is held shut with the hands, teeth or simply wrapped under the arms.
Dupatta

Common Pakistani, Punjabi and Indian garment, a large colored cloth made of a lightweight material that covers the head and shoulders. Usually sold in a three-piece set with colors or patterns matching the pants and shirts of a Salwar Kameez. Worn by Hindus as well.

Hijāb (1) حجاب
generic The entire modest dress of the Muslim woman.
Hijāb (2)
generic The headscarf; this is properly referred to as a khimār, plural khumur.
Hijāb (3)
A type of head covering that is a square of fabric folded into a triangle then placed over the head and fastened under the chin; this is probably the most common current style, especially in Western countries. Seeexplanation in the article on Hijāb

Jilbāb(1) جلباب
generic The term used in the Qur'ān (Suratu l-Ahzāb, āya 59) to refer to the outer garment.
Jilbāb(2)
A type of outer garment that looks like a long raincoat or trenchcoat.
Khimār(1) خمار
generic The term used in the Qur'ān (Suratu n-Nūr, āya 31) to refer to the headscarf; the word "hijāb" is more commonly used with this meaning.
Khimār(2)
Most commonly, a circular head covering with a hole cut out for the face, which usually comes down to the waist. Note the variations buknuk andchador above, which are the same style but different lengths.
Niqaabنقاب

A veil that covers the face and entire head but with a place cut out for the eyes.
Niqaab(2)

A veil that is tied on at the bridge of the nose and falls to cover the lower face. Also called "half niqab".
Paranji
A Central Asian traditional outer garment that covers the head and body, heavy in weight and made from horsehair. Especially prevalent in Uzbekand Tajik societies.

Tudung

Headscarf worn in Malaysia and Indonesia
Men
Men also have to dress modestly.
Igal

A part of the headdress for men. Often they are made of a black rope-like cord. They are worn atop the head to help keep the ghutra secured.
Bisht
A loose robe worn over a thawb.
Iḥrām The name typically used to denote the clothing worn by a pilgrim during either the Hajj or Umra. For a male, the first part is the izar, a piece of cloth wrapped around to cover from the ankles to the abdomen. The second piece, called the reda, is draped over the shoulders to cover the upper body. The cloth is to be plain, white and unsewn. For women, typical and unpretentious clothes will be their iḥrām. [1]

Kuffiyya, Ghutra or Shmagh

A checkered scarf often tied with igal. Can be styled into a turban or worn loosely over the head.
Taqiyah (cap)

A crochet cap that covers most of the head. Worn by Arab men. It can also be a round, sewn cotton cap that is embellished with embroidery. In Pakistan, India and Bangladesh it is called a topi. In West Africa, it is called a kufi.

Jubba/Thawb

Or "thobe", a long, robe-like garment. It is called Thobe in Bahrain, Dishdasha in Kuwait, and Kandorah in the UAE. Traditionally, the garment comes in an array of earth-tones usually by having it immersed inpomegranate peel or saffron. Although brown and grey colors are still used, white thobes have become more common.
Turban
Cloth wrapped around the head. Turbans are wrapped in varying styles, and often an undercap is worn.
External links
 BBC drawings depicting different forms of Islamic women's clothing
 All Types of Islamic Clothing
 Different types of Hijab
 List of Hijab types

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